Anybody know about Apple Watch? Help me figure out my activity level! This makes no sense

Losingthedamnweight
Losingthedamnweight Posts: 535 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
So I think my total daily calorie burn is just way off. But maybe I'm just super fat and burn alot of
calories? Help me figure out if this number makes sense so I can budget my calories
accordingly

I did absolutely nothing yesterday. I was a total couch potato. I barely even stood up. Walking
around the house I only got 1600 steps but was mostly sitting on the couch. For the whole day
my Apple Watch said my daily calorie burn (total) was 3100 calories. Doesn't that seem like a
crazy amount? Even for someone as fat as me?

I'm 5'8 male 37 years old and 270 bs. being totally sedentary it just seems like a lot? Or am I
wrong here?

Replies

  • Lietchi
    Lietchi Posts: 6,101 Member
    Based on the calculator here https://www.sailrabbit.com/bmr/ it seems on the high side, yes. Perhaps your heart rate is higher than average, making your watch think you're more active than you really are.

    In any case, both your watch and the calculator are just using formulas based on population averages, they don't measure calorie expenditure. The true test is your weight trend.

    If you follow your weight trend for 4 weeks and measure your food intake for 4 weeks, your can calculate your TDEE yourself: add up the calories you ate and add to that 3500 calories per lb you lost (or subtract 3500 calories per lb you gained).
  • panda4153
    panda4153 Posts: 417 Member
    I will say had the same worry with my Apple Watch so a few years back I started tracking daily my total intake and my total calorie burn per my watch and I gain or lose within 0.1 lb of what those numbers add up to be. This has stayed consistent over 4 years now and with 2 different Apple watches. I still track daily and trend calculate the expected gain/loss each month. It’s always within 0.1 pound.
  • Xellercin
    Xellercin Posts: 924 Member
    Do you have a high heart rate? I do and my watch thinks I'm doing hours of cardio every day. It's utterly useless for assessing my calorie burn.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,876 Member
    It doesn't seem inconceivably high...it's a couple hundred calories off from the sailrabbit calculator that was posted. But you are large and large means burning more calories just existing and doing other things. If you have a higher than average heart rate, that could also inflate the numbers a little. But a TDEE of 3100 calories for your size isn't really a crazy number either.

    All of this is estimates. Nothing outside of a lab can measure you calorie expenditure...all of these calculators and devices use population statistics and various algorithms to estimate such things with some reasonable proximity.
  • nanastaci2020
    nanastaci2020 Posts: 1,072 Member
    edited December 2021
    If you use a basic BMR/activity level estimator as a base range and the Apple watch readout as a high #, then your TDEE probably falls in the range of 2500-3100. *For the 2500 I used the standard BMR at sedentary and rounded down to the nearest 00.

    So my logic - because I like logic: Aim for calorie intake of 2000-2100. A conservative estimate says this should result in about 1 pound loss per week. In the odd event the Apple watch is right (and it is easily off a little because no tracker is perfect) then you'll lose faster.

    2000-2100 is above the bare minimum for men, and should allow enough 'room' in your daily allotment that hopefully you won't feel you're overly restricted. Track your results for the next 60-90 days. And adjust if/when your activity level changes or based on results.

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